So She Dances
by JadeMac2442
Summary: Based on the Josh Groban song of the same title. Its a short little fic, wherein Kirk watches an unknowing Uhura dance on the observation deck. One sided K/U.


_So She Dances_. Based upon the song of the same title by Josh Groban. I don't own the lyrics or the Star Trek franchise. Too bad for me.

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Kirk couldn't sleep. Again. He was prowling his ship without intention, listlessly trying to find something to do. There was no one awake. Gamma shift had started an hour ago, and all of them were safely at their posts. Everyone on Alpha and Beta was in bed. Kirk had worked both shifts but was still too wired to sleep.

It had been a bad day. A surprise attack had lost him three crewmen with another twenty seven wounded. Spock was in sickbay with a bad head wound. He'd been thrown across the bridge and into one of the deck rails. McCoy said he would be fine, but he'd kicked Jim out to get some sleep hours ago.

Yeah. That was likely.

Kirk was bored. Lonely. Tired. But sleep eluded him. It always did on days like this.

Sometimes Kirk _hated_ command.

His feet, as they often did, led him to the observation deck. He liked to stare at the stars.

But tonight, the room was occupied. Kirk could see movement, and he hovered at the door, uncertain. The lights were off, but despite it there was music playing.

Classical. He didn't recognize the song. A waltz of some kind.

It was Uhura. She was dancing, barefoot. It was something between waltz and ballet. She had her back to him.

Her hair was down, falling in over her back in a curtain, covering her shoulders. It was obviously a dance she knew well. She didn't appear to be concentrating. Uhura had her face to the window; as she swayed in the starlight, oblivious to his presence. The tiny dots of light made her skin glitter like diamonds. For a moment Kirk could not say what was more beautiful, the woman or the field of stars behind her.

She was captivating. Even her shadow had grace. He had never in his life seen something so completely out of his reach.

It was like the first time he'd seen the _Enterprise_.

Kirk could not look away.

She lifted her hands above her head, and the formal waltz took on something more intimate, more sensual. She moved perfectly with the music, as thought she knew its every nuance. Her steps predicted the song's changes, following it precisely. It was as though the song was making love to her.

She pulled back the hair from her face. Kirk's breath caught in his throat.

Her eyes were wet.

She and Spock had broken up three weeks before. Kirk didn't know who had decided what, but the two of them were being decidedly _polite_ on the bridge. Spock had been injured because he'd been helping her back to her seat after she was thrown out of it. She must be feeling guilty about that.

She turned and swayed and moved, and all the time, her arms were above her head, like she was praying.

This was tremendously personal. He should go. This was worse than watching sex. He was watching absolution.

But he could not look away.

It was too incredible. He had never in his life seen something so beautiful. He had known she could dance, but …wow.

The grace of her took his breath away.

She was good enough to be professional. He could see that. As his mother's mandatory dance partner for years, Kirk knew a little about ballroom -which was not to say that he was good at it, but he could recognize talent when he saw it.

And he was seeing it now. He made not a sound, afraid even breath could break the spell.

For a moment, he closed his eyes and pictured going up to her, offering her his hand and just dancing with her. For once, he didn't want to get in her pants, he just wanted to touch her, to see if she was really real. He wanted to touch beauty the likes of which his life had never known.

But such beauty was not for the likes of Jim Kirk.

She would never be for him. She'd proved that by being with Spock. Such perfection deserved to remain unsullied.

So she moved with the music, spinning between the constellations on the floor and the dreams in his head, and he did not approach her.

He didn't know how long he watched her. She was too involved to notice him.

Kirk shook himself from the reverie. He needed to leave. If he lingered any longer, she would be sure to catch him there. So reluctantly, he left and headed back to his quarters.

Even if he could never touch the likes of her, he'd seen her. Maybe someday, he could have someone like that in his life.

And later, alone in his room, he did a waltz for the girl out of reach.

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Please read and review.

Its not my normal fanfic, but I heard the song today. Those of you that have seen Center Stage should know that Zoe really is dancing in those scenes-she doesn't have a dance double, so I blended that movie with this one and came out with a very experienced dancer version of Uhura.


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